Sri Lanka’s Hayleys December net down 27-pct

Feb 11, 2016 (LBO) – Profits at Sri Lanka’s diversified Hayleys group fell 27 percent to 534 million rupees in the December 2015 quarter, interim accounts showed. The firm reported earnings of 7.12 rupees for the quarter 2015 compared to last year earnings of 9.81 rupees on profits of 736 million rupees. The group revenue rose 2 percent to 23.6 billion rupees in the December quarter of 2015. Cost of sales also rose 2 percent to 17.9 billion rupees in the quarter while posting a gross profit increase of 5 percent to 5.7 billion rupees. Net finance costs fell 9 percent to 491 million rupees. In the nine months to December, Transportation & Logistics segment of the group has recorded a 10 percent growth posting 11.65 billion rupees of revenue. Agriculture and Plantations fell 4.6 percent to 15.4 billion rupees. Hayleys said the Plantation sector faced a number of challenges during the year including the global commodities crash which caused lower tea and rubber prices and lackluster demand from traditional markets, compounded by inclement weather in Sri Lanka. In the nine months to December, the Hand Protection sector revenue fell 17 percent to 9 billion rupees. The Hand Protection sector also faced significant mixed challenges from the global market as Sri Lanka faced relatively higher input prices compared to competing countries, Hayleys said. “The company has already initiated a number of projects to move into more value added hand protection products to overcome the price sensitivity in the mass produced glove segments.”